The Jena Six

It all started last August in the small town of Jena, Louisiana (Pop. 3,000 with 300 blacks) At the local high school, there was a large tree dubbed the "white tree" whish white students congregated under. At the end of August, a black student asked the principal in a joking manner if he could sit under the tree. The principal told him he could sit wherever he liked.

The next day there were three nooses hanging from the tree. Three white students were found to have done this and the principal recommended they be expelled. The Board of Education overruled the principal and decided the boys should be suspended for three days since this was just a 'prank.' Now mind you , this is the kind of prank that can get you federally prosecuted, but, it was ruled a prank.

There were several racial incidents the rest of the year. It was clear there was racial tension in the school was simmering. The police asked LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters to speak to the school during an assembly. The students self-segregated during the assembly. During his talk, Walters felt he wasn't being paid attention to and was tired of protesters bringing up the "innocent prank." He raised a pen in his hand and said, "See this pen? I can end your lives with the stroke of a pen."

The next day police were patrolling the halls of the school. Days later, black students attempted to speak to the school board but were refused since the noose incident was history in the minds of the board.

In November, the main building in the school was burned to the ground. White students blamed the black students and the blacks blamed the whites.

A black student, Robert Bailey, was attacked by six or seven whites at a party at the Fair Barn. Months later, one man was arrested, charged with battery and given probation.

Later, Bailey and some friends ran into a white student who'd been at the Fair Barn. After exchanging angry words, the white student ran to his car and produced a shotgun. Bailey and his friends wrestled the shotgun away and he took it home with him. Bailey was charged with theft of a firearm second degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the shotgun? Not charged with anything.

Finally, on December 4, 2006, a white student, Justin Barker, a friend of the students who hung the nooses, got into an argument with Robert Bailey saying he'd gotten his "ass whipped" by a white student at the Fair Barn. Black students beat Barker unconscious. Barker was treated and released in time to attend a school function that night.

Six black students, now known as the Jena Six, were arrested and charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. These were felonies that could put them behind bars collectively for over 100 years. The charges were reduced. The first to be tried, 17 year old Mychal Bell was convicted of aggravated second degree battery and faced 22 1/2 years in prison. Fortunately, last week, an appellate court tossed Bell's conviction saying he should not have been tried as an adult.

He was to be sentenced Thursday, September 20, 2007. Instead, the NAACP expects over 50,000 people to descend on Jena to march and protest. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III will lead the march. Those who cannot attend are asked to wear black in honor of the Jena Six.

I'm leery of making martyrs out of the Jena Six. I hope I've gotten all the facts right about the case. But too often, we in the black community rally around people who don't deserve our support. However, in this case, if everything I've read is true, these brothers are being railroaded. They're not being treated like white kids in their position would be treated. And that's wrong. This is 2007. The all white jury rendering guilty verdicts based on overcharging a case should be a relic of the South's past, not it's present.

I don't believe the Jena Six should get off scot free. If they assaulted this guy, even if he was being a prick, then they should be held responsible. But there should be only one tier of justice in this country. How could the white man who attacked Robert Bailey be charged with a simple assault and given probation and in this case, there's aggravated second degree battery charges? How is that fair?

There's a lot of blame to go around in this case. There's blood on a lot of hands. And the school board and superintendent need to take their share. You don't blow up nooses in a tree in Louisiana. There's nothing about that that's funny. That's a prank? If someone sprayed a swastika on a Jewish family's garage door, would that be an "innocent prank"? As I said above, one can be prosecuted for "pranks" like that. The D.A. decided not to. He thought it was 'innocent.' Well, it wasn't innocent to the black students there. They should've seen that the cauldron was simmering.

Kids fight in school every day. Kids get jumped. It happens. I got jumped once by three guys. It's not right. It shouldn't happen. But schools handle fights all the time. They've done if for years. They have procedures in place. Now, in a case like this, you may want to get the authorities involved. But don't bring a black standard of justice to the case. Bring justice to the case.

The U.S. Attorney for the area has found no linkage between the noose incident in September and the fight in December. But that's like saying you see no link between slavery and Jim Crow and descrimination today. Sure, you may not find a direct link. But the cauldron was boiling with racial incidents throughout the fall and winter. It was in the air.

Equal justice.

This is still America. Isn't it?